Who is Mike D'Antoni?

Saturday, my Uncle in Mullens had a cookout for his daughter and step-daughter's college graduations. My mother was also having a birthday, so it was sort of a birthday cookout, mother's day cookout for all the mom's in attendance. I don't look forward to these events because the only thing that makes some of my family happy is sitting around talking shit about other family members. That's why I'm not a big family guy. My parents are good people as well as some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins, but the rest I can do without.

So we did our thing and had hamburgers and hotdogs. The highlight of my day was playing Cornhole (a game similar to horshoes, but instead of a peg and horseshoes, you use bean bags a little larger than your hand and try to throw them into a hole in a wooden box. It's a very old school, carny'ish type game, but fun for the competition aspect. You'd think I was the only person in my family to ever place a wager though. I couldn't get anyone to play for money despite the fact that I sucked major donkey balls at the game.

As the sun went down, some of the family was leaving, but others were preparing for the big Dogwood festival in Mullens. I was not pumped up for this. Mullens is a dead coal mining town with maybe a couple hundred people in it. It was almost completely wiped out several years back by flooding, yet these few hundred people refused to listen to mother nature's warnings and rebuilt their homes. I pretty much despise the town because I despise the ethics and politics involved with coal mining. This is a coal mining town. But it's where my parents and such grew up, so it's home to them. I can respect that.

The Dogwood festival is where they close off a few streets, put up some crappy rides and sell overpriced food every 50 feet. There was a concert which had a crappy band singing cover songs of other crappy bands.

So, we're walking around and this one dude seems to be getting a lot of attention. He is really chummy with my drunk uncle. The family gathers around and talks to him. I have no earthly clue who the guy is. He's probably in his 50's, and very clean looking. Then I heard this come out of his mouth:

"I took the job with the Knicks."

When I heard that my ears perked up. What kind of job was he talking about? I get interested whenever I hear anyone talk about jobs in sports because I'm looking to get my feet in the door with the MLB. So, after a little more eaves dropping, I figured out that this guy was Mike D'Antoni... former Phoenix Suns and new New York Knicks head coach. Hah! I had no clue he was from small town WV.

D'Antoni was at the festival with his father. They had evidently walked down to the festival. However, my (drunk) uncle ended up giving them a ride home from the festival in his WVU themed battery powered golf cart.